Take THAT, nasty ol' school photos!

A few months back, I wrote a post about the lousy photos I'd gotten of my children this year. Mam's school photos were abysmal. Smuch's were nonexistent and his Little League photos were passable. I promised to take them both to Sears Portrait Studio and get something decent of them. I took them last month, along with their cousin, Spencer. You may remember that was a little bit of an adventure too.

Today, I picked up our photos from Sears. For comparison, Mam's school photo is on the right. The one from Sears, purchased with a killer coupon for about $3 is on the left. I know it's just Sears and the photos aren't the highest quality you'll find anywhere in the world. I could've paid a lot more, but I LOVE these photos!...especially this one of Mam. Many, many thanks to Puja, the photographer at Sears Portrait Studio in Cupertino for these photos. She was awesome.



The photos of all three kid together turned out pretty great too. I'm especially thrilled with our eventual choice of clothing for the kids. It's sort of like interior decorating. I get the idea, so it's a mystery to me why it often turns out looking pretty crappy. This one, I love. I love that I went and spent the money on that cute little checkered dress at Gymboree. I love how it looks with the boys in matching jeans and white shirts. And, I love that the kids are barefoot...even though I forced that decision by forgetting Mam's shoes. I also love that in my joy over having such terrific photos, I've completely forgotten what a pain it was to get all the kids there and happy. I don't miss that lovely red bow that was supposed to be in Mam's hair. It looked great, but you know what? Her hair looks fine anyway.


I'm also pretty pleased with these two photos of Smunch. I know the first one shows more personality and may even be more true to Smunch than the second one. But I'm in love with the second one anyway. Because that's how I think of my beautiful little boy. He's got big, gorgeous blue eyes, a sweet smile and beautiful, unblemished skin...because, unlike his sister, he's timid and careful and his face is relatively scar-free. And something about this picture makes me actually believe my son is an angel, regardless of the fact that he's been extraordinarily difficult and is always making us worry about something or other. It's hard to imagine when I look at that picture. He looks like the sweetest little boy in the world...even if it's a rather institutional-looking shot. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes is really is a sweet little boy. But those moments usually pale in comparison to the moments when I'm struggling to pry him off the ceiling.

This last photo is one I almost didn't purchase. I don't know why. I just loved that other picture of Mam so much that this one looked a little silly. But I'm glad I've got it. Even though this photo is totallyposed, it says a lot about Mam's personality. Even though she's three and very, very...very opininated (latest quote: "Read my rules!"), she's still silly and hysterical...and really awfully cute.